User blog:DatAsymptote/De-spell-opment Challenge 1: French King Squad
(jazz hands) a snazzier intro may be added eventually. or not. whatever. this blog is for the express purpose of the De-spell-opment Challenge, and for the first round, i will be using the French King Squad: *Ramsey Baartholomew - the next King Ram - The Ram/The Wonderful Sheep *Orleans le Nouveau - the next King of the Gold Mines - The Yellow Dwarf *Turnus Wyllt - the next King Merlin’s son - Princess Mayblossom Question 1: Hogwarts House Ramsey would be a Hufflepuff. Her industrious nature and dedication to running a successful, well-functioning kingdom demonstrates an aptitude for hardwork and teamwork, traits valued by the Hufflepuff house. She would come from a large Muggle family, as the only Muggleborn among her siblings. Orleans would be sorted into Gryffindor. He has a chivalrous, noble streak, aligning with Gryffindor values. I also briefly considered Slytherin, due to his glory-obsessed, ambitious nature, but overall, Orleans values a brave, righteous path, so Gryffindor it was. He would probably be either half-blood or pureblood, I think. And finally, Turnus as a Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw values creativity and wit, and Turnus is constantly reading and writing fantasy, being the jokester of the squad, and generally just doing ~quirky~ creative things. I mean, come on, this is the guy who reads pop science books for'' fun'', even though he has no idea what the writer is going on about. Turnus is definitely pureblood. Question 2: Historical or Fictional Inspiration Okay, so Ramsey loves speculative sci-fi. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep, Brave New World… stuff like that. In particular, Ramsey would cite her favourite character – and hence, her favourite inspiration, as Guy Montag from Fahrenheit 451. She takes pride in a character with pride in his job, she finds something admirable in the way that he allows his viewpoint to shift due to the media he consumes. And finally, she just finds it downright AWESOME for him to live his life (spoilers) exiled, with a crowd of men, in the forest, just memorising books – “''I mean, HOW COOL IS THAT? It’s like, really cool. Really, really cool.” In terms of real-life, historical-inspirations, she finds Shrek the Sheep pretty rad. Hands down, Orleans is inspired by '''every King of the Gold Mines that came before'. To him, they represent fidelity, the invincibility of love, and above all, honour and sacrifice. Since childhood, he has been utterly moved by D’Aulnoy stories, the Yellow Dwarf in particular, and has held the King in it as the paragon of what a prince should be – above any other fairytale Prince Charming. If you had to ask him for a fictitious inspiration though, Orleans would probably and answer “'Jay Gatsby', perhaps?” even though he’s never read the book (or seen the movie). But c'mon, parties? Champagne? THE TWENTIES? That guy's practically living the life. In terms of historical figures, Turnus would answer Nikola Hexla Tesla with no hesitation. He can’t wax poetic about how much Nikola Hexla means to him, but he adores the aesthetic – the hexla coils, the electrical sparks, the general innovative feel of Hexla-inspired-things. Basically, Turnus finds physics in general pretty cool, and Nikola Hexla is pretty much the most iconic physicist in popular science culture, so obviously he has a (slightly superficial) like of him. Fictional-character wise, Turnus would say “most high-fantasy heroes”, but in particular, he’s quite inspired by Legolas from Lord of the Rings – pretty with long hair, generally looking badass amidst a battle, able to walk on top of snow. He won't admit it, but he did style his own hair based off LOTR elves. Question 3: Fight or Flight Ramsey and Orleans are both fight. Insult their honour? Insult any sense of virtue they possess? I mean, have you ever angered a sheep? That's definitely not something you would want to do. Ramsey has the reputation for being a young upstart, trying to be better than she actually is. Her general loudness and eagerness to prove herself worthy of such a great D'Aulnoy destiny means that she has the habit of overdoing such proof. Although this often does not come to any physical injuries, Ramsey is fond of throwing insults. Orleans, like Ramsey, is also desperate to prove himself, except he isn't as forward. Going headfirst into fights lacks the composure required in a decent prince. Rather than being on the offensive, like Ramsey, Orleans tends to be more on the defensive. He will stand his ground, he will throw in some witty remarks or some sword strikes if necessary, but otherwise, he really dislikes most forms of violence. If anything, he will try tactful negotiation – except when it comes to dragons, neckbeard dwarves and other unsavoury folk, tact doesn't get you all that far. Turnus, however, is more flight. He's a guy who just wants to do his own thing. Life, instead, decided to give him a destiny that he never wanted in the first place, and has forced him to deal with that. In the case of that, he has a habit of just downright ignoring that, and pretending that he's just an ordinary prince. In general, Turnus just hates being confronted with anything he dislikes. Instead of getting defensive, he just a) walks away, b) ignores it. Instead of confronting any issues, he's avoidant and pretends they don't exist. In some cases, that works. In other cases, it doesn't. Mostly, it seems to manifest in his terrible habit of procrastination. Question 4: Unique Facial Feature Ramsey’s cheeks are probably the most unique feature of her face - they're squishy, round and frequently dimpled. When I draw Orleans, I tend to emphasise his nose. No reason, I just really like noses and drawing noses. For Turnus, people probably take into account his sharp cheekbones. Because the next King Merlin's son is supposed to be attractive, and apparently people are into sharp cheekbones? (shrugs) Question 5: Theme Colours Ramsey is associated with grey and white, with a few dashes of pastel. Grey and white allude to the typical wool colour of sheep, while pastel is just there to keep it interesting. Overall, I aim for a pretty rustic feel with Ramsey's colour scheme, in attempt to emphasise her (relatively humble) origins. Orleans’ theme colours are gold on black. Gold, naturally, represents his distinguished destiny as King of the Gold Mines, while black (a symbol of death in the Western World) represents his demise at the end of his tale. And just as the gold patterns cover the black fabric in his outfits, Orleans’ idealism of the prestige and honour of his role shroud his fear of death -- for ephemeral fame, he is willing to sacrifice his life – hahaha I'm just messing with you guys, it's purely for aesthetic. While I haven't actually settled on a proper basic design for Turnus yet, I do know that his main colours are purple and silver. The two colours just give off a very magical vibe? TBA Question 6: Deadly Sin & Heavenly Virtue TBA Question 7: Most Uncomfortable Alternate Universe TBA Question 8: Childhood Entertainment TBA Question 9: Destiny Swap with Friend Ramsey would probably like to swap with any other enchanted husband trope - one with a happier ending, at least. don't get her wrong, she loves the premise of her story, she just thinks some more longevity would be nice. Orleans would never swap his destiny with anyone! Being the King of the Gold Mines is an honour he can’t even begin to comprehend. If asked this quesiton, he would answer with a series of offended gasps, because how dare you imply such a thing?! Turnus would most want to swap with a person without a destiny, so he wouldn’t have to serve as some mediocre love-interest-trophy-husband thing. If he had to swap with a friend, though, he would pick the (currently unnamed) mermaid in The Yellow Dwarf. The power to turn people in palm trees? Gifting diamond swords to princes? A NPC role would be awesome. Question 10: MBTI TBA Question 11: Strongest Life Philosophy TBA Category:De-spell-opment Challenge 1 Category:Blog posts